More of a Display Case than a Diorama

[EngineerBob]

Here's a photo of my just completed diorama-ish display case. I say 'diorama-ish' because it was never intended to be very realistic or to compete with the fantastic dioramas that I've seen on this site, I just wanted something enclosed that looked more appropriate than brown wood. The models that I built during this past year were already covered in dust sitting on an open shelf so I repurposed one of the shelves in my Lawyer Bookcase. I just used foam board and images from the internet printed on regular printer paper then stuck with spray-glue and added inexpensive LED strip lighting. It looks good from 10 feet away.

[Modelbuilder Mark]

That is really cool! I cannot tell, is the front glass, or is it open?

 

[EngineerBob]

Thanks. The front door is wood framed with clear glass like the one below. Due to the glare from the camera it's photographed open (it tilts up and slides back).

[TarheelRick]

Very cool idea.  Looks fine to me, especially the "Ford Garage" sign.  Have you posted any of those builds in the finished models section?  That van and the "Undertaker" looks quite intriguing. 

[Misha]

Wow! What a great idea. I also use a set of barrister cabinets for my finished work, now I have some more work to do. Your case looks fabulous Grant, will you be expanding it to the other units?
Cheers Misha

[Tom Geiger]

That is very cool, especially the ingenious way you worked in an upper shelf!  

[ewetwo]

I think it looks great and a very clever idea with the book case.

 

[TonyK]

That looks great! I never thought of trying to simply print images on paper. Not sure how I would get it to be to scale.

[cobraman]

I like it .

[EngineerBob]

TonyK, getting the pictures printed to scale wasn't very difficult. I saved suitable pics from various internet sites to my computer and then copied them to a Word document. In Word there is a ruler across the top and side that you can use to expand or shrink the pictures to get the size that you need. Just need to convert real dimensions to the appropriate scale dimension (ie. for 1/25 scale, a 78" tall door divided by 25 would be a 3.12" tall door picture in the Word document). Test print in black and white if you want to save ink. Also make the margins virtually zero so you can get more on each sheet.

 

Thanks for the kind words about the display case. I've finished 7 car models since the start of the Pandemic and have a few more started but when/if I run out of room I'll do a different theme in the next shelf down (parking structure or warehouse?).

I definitely plan to show off a few more models on this site!

[Dave Ambrose]

This is a great way to display your models. That dragster on the upper deck is especially interesting. Can you share its story?

[David G.]

That's really cool! ? 

What a great way to literally "showcase" your most recent builds.

David G.

[Jim B]

That's pretty cool.

[EngineerBob]

Dave A, thanks for asking about the dragster. I've now posted photos and info in the Dragster section.